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A young guy I work with burst into tears today, I had no idea what happened so I tried to comfort him and ask what was up.

It appears his main client had gone nuts with him because they wanted him to make an internet toolbar (think Ask.com) and he politely informed them toolbars doesn't really exist anymore and it wouldn't work on things like modern browsers or mobile devices.

Being given a polite but honest opinion was obviously something the client wasn't used to and knowing the guy was a young and fairly inexperienced, they started throwing very personal insults and asking him exactly what he knows about things (a lot more than them).

So being the big, bold, handsome senior developer I am, I immediately phoned the client back and told them to either come speak to me face-to-face and apologise to him in person or we'd terminate there contract with immediate effect. They're coming down tomorrow...

So part my rant, part a rant on behalf of a young developer who did nothing wrong and was treated like shit, I think we've all been there.

Big thanks to everyone who's already become involved in this rant! I'm going to actually show the guy this post tomorrow just so he can see how many people are on his side and that he did nothing wrong, he was terrified he'd messed up (obviously he hadn't at all). I'll be writing another reply to this rant tomorrow to update. Any encouraging words for him in the replies would be greatly appreciated!

Please thank him from me. I've had to help quite a few toolbar victims getting rid of those evil add-ons through the years. Anyone who tells their clients to refrain from peddling toolbars deserves cred - big time.

Also, he's saving an ungrateful client from a lot of toolbar caused badwill. They should appreciate that.

@peaam Hello there, young guy, what you did was awesome; letting the client know what he really needs and what he really _doesn't_ need is a sign of a mature developer. You did great! Sometimes, clients just don't get it. You did your part and that's what matters. Stick with @peaam. I don't know him but I can safely assume that people like him aren't generally found on the planet. It's hard to find a senior who'll get your back like this and don't give a flying fuck to the client when the client crosses the line. Hope to see you up the ladder real quick real fast! Cheers!

1/4 - Wow, I was not expecting the response this rant's received. A very big thank you to everyone who contributed, you've made a big difference in the last 24 hours.

This morning I took our guy aside to show him devRant and this post, to put it mildly, he was very taken by all the support on here. To make it easier I will call our guy Tom (not his real name). Also, the client was a company, not just one person.

So there was a meeting scheduled for 12pm today (BST) and the guy from the client company was coming down to speak to me in person about what happened yesterday. Tom was still very upset this morning so we spent the first hour scrolling through devRant and reading a lot of rants (thanks guys!).

The plan was at 12pm I'd meet the guy from the client company, take him into an office and get his side of the story and explain Tom's side before taking things further.

2/4 - 12pm came and went, 12:15pm nothing, by 12:30pm I was furious and about to call him when the receptionist told us he was in the building. I went down to meet a woman, this wasn't right, I'd heard it was a man that had shouted at Tom. She introduced herself as the CEO of client company and wanted to speak to Tom and myself together.

We went to an office and before I could start, Tom received the biggest apology I've ever seen. The reason the CEO was late was she'd stopped off to buy him a brand-new iPhone and MacBook Pro.

The guy who worked at the client company and shouted at Tom was overheard by somebody in his own office. It appears the guy was already on his final warning and, as of this morning, has been sacked. He'd treated other people very badly in the past and he was reported yesterday by one of his own colleagues for how he'd spoken to Tom.

3/4 - It's hard to explain exactly what was said to yesterday because I want to avoid specifics, I'm sure a lot of people would say that these things happen all the time but the comments the guy made yesterday were incredibly personal about Tom and completely unacceptable for anyone.

We spoke to the CEO for about 2 hours and she made it clear that she was on Tom's side as much as we were. She has already found someone to take over the sacked guy's role and wants Tom to continue working with her company with a much nicer replacement.

I cannot thank devRant enough, I was furious last night when I wrote this rant and pretty much instantly got amazing feedback. This is my first rant to hit 175 +1s so I'm donating my stress ball to Tom and also getting him a t-shirt. Tom made a devRant account today, hopefully he can post some amazing content one day and get me a ball in return!

As a dev who also has to be the project manager for 20+ sites @ once, I understand this 100%. We get SO many rude ass clients who ask for the world/ near impossible and expect to not pay extra or to have it done in extremely unrealistic time frames. No matter how polite you are or how hard you try to explain that it won't work, it will cost more, etc., some clients just don't frikon get it and snap on/berate you. Sometimes I honestly feel bullied, and will turn my phone and email off towards the 2nd half of the day. I have been so upset to point of panic attacks and dreading work each morning.

I can't wait until the day when we have project managers and I can just code and not deal with clients and their nasty attitudes anymore.

This jr developer is VERY lucky to have someone like you step in. Clients forget we're the professionals and know what we're talking about. We're real people with feelings too and need to be treated with respect and kindness. ASSHAT CLIENTS. 🙄😡🖕🏻

Hopefully this didn't sound like a personal pity party for me, I just relate to this rant so much and know how he must have felt. I'm glad Tom was apologized to by the CEO and that DevRant made him feel better. I do think that there should be policies in place everywhere to protect us from and allow us to terminate clients who are vulgar and inappropriately rude.

As a young Dev, it's nice to know there are Sr devs out there like this. My Sr dev did something similar for me once. Was getting yelled at by an angry client who refused to listen to anything. Sr dev hung up on him, rejected his next phone call, then called him back and told him he would either listen or figure it out himself. Needless to say, Sr dev had my back. Keep kicking ass, OP!!!

This rant really makes me not scared about going into the workforce anymore, if a lot of devs were like the op I bet my internship would've been a little better but regardless, I am really glad "Tom" got treated so nicely, well deserved on him.

Got to this post from Podcast and just dropped by to say, "Appreciate you for standing up for your Junior :)" Also, "Cheers to Tom on his new Mac Pro"
Devs/Seniors like you and CEO like your client's, restore my faith in unbiased and rationale leadership. Thank you :D

It is very rare to wake up and read such touching and bold stories.even more rare to find genuine people in this planet who are well aware of what common sense entails. You, the client, and Tom are awesome.
I'll drink to that!

On a serious note, I am sorry for what happened to that man. I know it isn't something extremely heartbreaking, but getting treated so shit while you're trying to do your best can really set you low, especially when it involves something you like so dearly.

@Grumpy doesn't it only get installed when you check agree or hit agree though? You could say it's the user's fault for not reading the installer but I know they have been sneaky with the button setup where you might need to click on decline to continue without the third party software which would exit any other installer

I hate it when I'm helping people with their 20 year old computers, getting rid of all the fucking crap they have installed and then when it's cleaner and it still runs like shit they start insulting me that I "broke their computer" and "I know nothing". Hurts every time.

He can't quit his job every time he bumps into an asshat. He'll have to toughen up a bit and learn how to handle them. He should remember that he is the expert in the field, not them. If they knew what the knows they wouldn't need him and that makes him powerful.

A day, I've got a client like that. He's not my client anymore, I've said the truth, that I don't want this kind of client. I have more and more intelligent and polite clients now. So If they're not happy, they can take their *** and get out.

You did more than right, we are developers and customers, market not lacking for us, we do not have to subject us (in fact no one is...) to these types of behavior, mainly tolerate this kind of behavior with the less experienced. Regardless of the beginners talk some nonsense or wrong, we must always be patient and treat them with greater education possible.

Today you teach someone, tomorrow you can learn from someone, nobody knows everything and we all have a lot to teach and share.

Massive respect for you. Well done for sticking up for your colleague like that. Nobody deserves to be spoken to in such a way. I look forward to hearing an update because I imagine the client's behaviour in person will be very different from how they behaved on the phone.